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The Green Belt of Alcala de Henares
SpainThe Green Belt of Alcala de Henares
Project leader
Duration of the partnership
2023-2024
Location
Spain
The Project and its Challenges
Initially, the partnership between the Maisons du Monde Foundation and the Spain branch of the Plant for the Planet Foundation aimed to create a green belt in the Spanish city of Granada. The objective was simple: to reforest the riverbanks of the Monachil river, located on the outskirts of the city. Through this partnership, Plant for the Planet was able to identify several key riverside areas to plant trees in for the restoration effort.
The results: more than 150 trees were planted along the Monachil River over a total area of 1 km on both sides. Ultimately, this collaboration aims to plant a vast ring of trees around the city over a 42 km long zone. Through this, they hope to enrich the local vegetation and biodiversity of the surrounding area.
About the Granada Project
Though the climate crisis affects rural and urban areas alike, the majority of the world’s population lives in the city. In order to better act on the social and environmental challenges ahead, it becomes essential to launch awareness-raising campaigns alongside various restoration efforts for the urban ecosystem. It is with this mission in mind that the Plant for the Planet Foundation has developed several strategies to create green spaces around the cities and towns of Spain.
Thus, Plant for the Planet does not wish to limit itself to the city of Granada. They aim to extend their initiatives throughout Spain, starting with the city of Alcala de Henares. For these reasons, Maisons du Monde has agreed to support this new endeavor. We wish to continue helping Plant for the Planet pursue its goals of urban reforestation as well as the preservation of biodiversity in the city.
Of course, this project is only part of a wider renaturation effort. Alongside this, Plant for the Planet envisions the creation of a circuit of hiking trails, livestock paths and other natural corridors connecting the disparate green spaces. This “green wall” should help capture carbon emissions as well as further enrich the restoration of urban biodiversity.
Through this partnership, we hope to engage the people of Alcala de Henares in planting trees. We ask for the active participation of all residents, particularly children and young adults motivated by climate issues. We highlight awareness and training tools to help build this new generation into future leaders of environmental activism in Spain.
Objectives :
With the backing of Maisons du Monde, this collaboration should help Plant for the Planet:
- Engage residents in the preservation and maintenance of natural ecosystems by building a community field
- Supporting the youth to become ambassadors for climate justice
- Create a scalable model that can be reproduced for local and international use
- Raise awareness amongst the residents of Alcala de Henares, neighboring municipalities, and public and private parties interested in the scope, impact, and development of the “green belt”
The beneficiaries
The direct beneficiaries are :
– The 300 young children who will take part in the planting or in educational and awareness-raising activities
– The citizens of Alcala de Henares who are actively involved in the initiative.
The other beneficiaries are :
– The residents of Alcalá de Henares and the population of the metropolitan area of Alcalá de Henares, with a potential of more than 800,000 people involved.
– The local and regional administration, the municipal council of Alcalá de Henares and the surrounding municipalities, as well as the regional government of Madrid
– Other Spanish and European cities that could potentially replicate the Green Belt’s actions and programmes by systematising and communicating the project.
– Companies that collaborate in the plantation’s events and other activities, as the partnership can contribute to the company’s social and environmental responsibilities and communication.
The project benefits
The Plant for the Planet Spain Foundation’s approach is based on a desire for participative, inclusive and replicable reforestation and restoration. This approach involves integrating children and young people to make them real agents of change.
Project leader Foundation Plant for the Planet
The Spanish branch of the Plant for the Planet Foundation is part of the international Plant for the Planet initiative created in 2007 by nine-year-old Felix Finkbeiner in Germany.
Now present in 75 countries, more than 95,000 children and young people are part of the network of climate justice ambassadors.
The mission of Plant for the Planet Spain is to empower future generations of Spanish climate leaders while actively promoting reforestation, sustainability and climate justice as essential tools. Most will subsequently remain involved in the Plant for the Planet ambassador network, an offline/online community.
Website
“A participatory citizens’ movement to turn the city of Alcalá de Henares into a benchmark for the environment, becoming an example to follow at European level”.
“One of our pillars are the children, starting to make them aware of environmental issues from an early age is very important for us, for this reason we have created the programme “My School is Green”.